History, Politics and Commentary - Politics

A gripping exploration of the last great unknown realm of the British secret service: Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ). GCHQ is the successor to the famous Bletchley Park wartime code-breaking organisation and is the largest and most secretive intelligence organisation in the country. During the war, it commanded more staff than MI5 and MI6 combined and has produced a number of intelligence triumphs, as well as some notable failures. Since the end of the Cold War, it has played a pivotal role in shaping Britain's secre... read more

'Thoroughly engaging' - Daily Telegraph

'Skilfully weaves together the personal, political, military and technological dimensions of electronic espionage' - Economist

'Aldrich packs in vast amounts of information, while managing to remain very readable. He paints the broad picture, but also introduces fascinating detail.' -  Literary Review

'Richard J. Aldrich is an outstanding analyst and historian of intelligence and he tells this story well!an important book, ..read more

Features updated material and a special foreword from Arianna for the UK audience It's not an exaggeration to say that the hard-working, average citizen on an average income is an endangered species and that the American Dream of a secure, comfortable standard of living has become outdated. The USA is in danger of becoming a Third World nation. The evidence is all around: its industrial base is vanishing, taking with it the kind of jobs that have formed the backbone of America's economy for more than a century; the education syst... read more

Everything you think you know is a lie. Or is it? "The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories" is the definitive guide to the world's most controversial theories. With updated information on all the most infamous conspiracies, from phony crucifixions to who really did kill JFK, this fully up-dated guide also covers the murders of Alexander Litvinenko and Benasir Bhutto, the London bombings and the Iraq War, as well as the inquest into Princess Diana's death. The guide is a thoroughly researched exploration into this compulsive and, at ... read more

A "New York Times" columnist reviews the trajectory of fictions spun by the Bush administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, revealing the most brilliant spin campaign ever conducted. First published 2006.

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In The President of Good and Evil, philosopher Peter Singer scrutinises the policies and actions of George W. Bush from an ethical perspective. "George W. Bush is not only America's president," he writes, "but also its most prominent moralist. No other president in living memory has spoken so often about good and evil, right and wrong." In this timely and important book, Singer also carefully examines what he calls "a distinctively American moral outlook," a particular and pervasive world view which affects all of us today.

We Won, You Lost. Eat That! takes readers through our tax history, from the first customs tariff imposed in 1840 to the Dog Tax War of 1898, from the poll tax on Chinese migrants that was sharply increased by the Liberals in the 1890s to the 90 per cent top marginal income tax rate that confronted the most highly paid during the Second World War. As politicians struggle with the temptations that the power of taxation dangles before them and taxpayers respond to frequent changes in methods and levels of taxation, the battles have be... read more

With an introduction by David Aaronovitch, "The Communist Manifesto" was first published in London, by two young men in their late twenties, in 1848. Its impact reverberated across the globe and throughout the next century, and it has come to be recognized as one of the most important political texts ever written. Maintaining that the history of all societies is a history of class struggle, the manifesto proclaims that communism is the only route to equality, and is a call to action aimed at the proletariat. It is an essential read... read more

A field report by a renowned regional specialist documents the major crises that have overshadowed the Middle East throughout the past thirty years, offering insight into the decisive events that are reshaping the region.

The election of Barack Obama brought hope to millions around the world. Change was promised. But the Israel/Palestine conflict remains mired in brutality and occupation. The election of a far-right Israeli government, the indiscriminate Gaza war and the illegal expansion of West Bank colonies seems to indicate a dire future. But cracks are appearing. Public debate about the issue, in the US, UK and America, is changing. Dissenters are gaining their voice. Fresh ways of tackling the crisis are appearing. In a fully updated edition, ... read more

The invasion of Iraq may well be remembered as the first oil currency war. Far from being a response to 9-11 terrorism or Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, Petrodollar Warfare argues that the invasion was precipitated by two converging phenomena: the imminent peak in global oil production, and the ascendance of the euro currency. Energy analysts agree that world oil supplies are about to peak, after which there will be a steady decline in supplies of oil. Iraq, possessing the world's second largest oil reserves, was th... read more

Any newspaper anywhere in the world, any day, carries news about illegal migrants, drug busts, smuggled weapons, laundered money, or counterfeit goods The intense media coverage devoted to the war on terrorism has helped to obscure the other new wars of globalisation. Illicit international trade pits governments against agile, well-financed networks of highly dedicated individuals. Religious zeal or political goals drive terrorists, but profit is no less a motivator for murder, mayhem, and global insecurity than religious fanaticis... read more

At the heart of this title is Senator Obama's vision of how his country can move beyond its divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families and the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and considers the nature of threats from outside America's borders.

Outlines the processes of government and politics in the United States from the Declaration of Independence to the presidential election of 2000.

The truth about the climate crisis is an inconvenient one that means we are going to have to change the way we live our lives. Our climate crisis may at times appear to be happening slowly, but in fact it has become a true planetary emergency and we must recognise that we are facing a crisis. So why is it that some leaders seem not to hear the clarion warnings? Are they resisting the truth because they know that the moment they acknowledge it, they will face a moral imperative to act? Is it simply more convenient to ignore the warn... read more

'A user-friendly introduction to global warming lucid, harrowing and bluntly effective' Michiko Kakutani, NEW YORK TIMES ' this frightening, galvanizing book will convince plenty of readers that Earth genuinely does hang in the balance ' Warren Bass, WASHINGTON POST 'Gore the activist is an earnest, passionate, funny and caring individual, determined to communicate with people about the most important issue facing our earth' HollywoodReporter.com

In 9/11 Contradictions, David Ray Griffin shows that the official story about 9/11 is riddled with internal contradictions. Two contradictory statements cannot both be true. These contradictions show, therefore, that individuals and agencies articulating the official story of 9/11 have made many false statements. Congress and the press clearly should ask which of the contradictory statements are false and why they were made. This book is purely factual, simply laying out the fact that these internal contradictions exist. As such, t... read more

Four years after his global bestseller, Joseph Stiglitz now brings the story up to the present, examining how change has occurred even more rapidly since then, proposing solutions and looking into the future. Here he puts forward radical new ways of dealing with the crippling indebtedness of developing countries, a new system of global reserves to overcome international financial instability, and an economically incentivised framework for dealing with energy pollutions which create global warming and which threaten us on a plane... read more

In this important new collection of interviews with the acclaimed radio journalist David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky discuses U.S. foreign policy in the post-9/11 world. Barsamian has a unique rapport with Chomsky having conducted more interviews and radio broadcasts with him than any other journalist, and here explores topics Chomsky has never before discussed: the 2004 presidential campaign and election; the future of Social Security; the increasing threat of global warming; and new dangers presented by the United States' ever-deepen... read more

During the last century global politics was shaped by utopian projects. Pursuing a dream of a world without evil, powerful states waged war and practised terror on an unprecedented scale. From Germany to Russia to China to Afghanistan entire societies were destroyed. Utopian ideologies rejected traditional faiths and claimed to be based in science. They were actually secular versions of the myth of Apocalypse - the belief in a world-changing event that brings history, with all its conflicts, to an end. The war in Iraq was the last ... read more

What lies behind the human attraction to violence? Why do we glorify war, seeing it as an almost sacred undertaking? Barbara Ehrenreich is known for the originality and clarity of her thinking, and in Blood Rites she proposes a radical new theory about our attitudes to bloodshed. From the trenches of Verdun to today's front lines, Ehrenreich traces the history of warfare back to our prehistoric ancestors' terrifying experiences of being hunted by other carnivores. Written with wit, tenacity and intellectual flair, this is vintage E... read more